Keir Starmer said his new government would stick to plans to spend at least £3 billion a year on military aid to Ukraine for as long as the conflict with Russia continues.
Speaking after his first official bilateral meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the NATO summit in Washington, the prime minister confirmed that military aid would continue until at least 2030-31.
The UK has so far pledged around £12 billion in aid to Ukraine since February 2022, of which £7.1 billion will go towards military assistance, with the rest going towards humanitarian and economic aid.
In his meeting with Zelensky, Starmer stressed that Ukraine was on an “irreversible” path to NATO membership, but diplomats at the summit said providing a firm timeline would be a gift to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“NATO was founded by a generation that defeated fascism. They understood not only the value of our strength but also the strength of our values,” the prime minister will tell other leaders on Thursday.
“These values are once again under attack. President Putin needs to hear the clear message that comes from this summit: a message of unity and determination to support Ukraine by any means necessary to defend our shared values and common security.”
British officials said they were mindful of the possibility that Donald Trump, whose commitment to NATO and Ukraine is unclear, could return to the White House, but were focused on leaving the alliance in the best possible shape regardless of who wins the US presidential election.
Starmer launched a review which set out plans for Britain to spend tens of billions of pounds extra on the military and called on Nato allies to increase defence spending to respond to growing global threats, including from Russia.
He will tell the other 31 NATO member states that the first line of defense in the Euro-Atlantic region is the trenches in Ukraine and that the international community cannot waver in the face of relentless Russian aggression.
Kiev’s biggest request from NATO countries is for a multiyear budget to plan its defense against Russian forces. Britain is due to deliver a new set of artillery pieces and 90 Brimstone missiles in the coming weeks.
The government will launch a strategic defence review next week but it is expected to take around a year to complete, and Starmer is under increasing pressure to confirm a timetable for the UK to increase defence spending to its target of 2.5% of GDP.
But Defence Minister Luke Pollard said on Wednesday the Government would not increase military spending unless it also delivered economic growth.
“The way to increase public spending on defence, schools, hospitals and prisons is to grow the economy,” he told the BBC.
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“If we don’t grow the economy, we won’t have the money to fund our public services and our ambitions, and defence is one of those.”
A senior Downing Street official suggested the 2.5 percent pledge would remain in place whether the new government achieves its growth target – and if it does, difficult questions will arise about how to fund it.
“Of course,” they said, “our commitment to defense is absolute. But we also believe we have economic growth to gain. So the idea that we have to wait for one or the other is unacceptable.”
Downing Street could not confirm whether the Strategic Defence Review would be published before the Comprehensive Spending Review, due this autumn, but suggested it would not take a full year.
Starmer met Joe Biden for the first time at a welcome event at the NATO summit, where the pair exchanged private words as they shook hands in front of cameras, before Starmer held his first bilateral meeting with the US president at the White House.
The prime minister, an avid football fan, presented the president with an Arsenal football shirt bearing the name “Biden” and the number 46 on the back, signifying that he is the 46th president of the United States. [Starmer’s] With the team [he] “We thought it would be a personal gift,” a senior Downing Street official said.
Trump previously gifted French President Emmanuel Macron an Arsenal top, and gave Biden a framed copy of the original Atlantic Charter that led to the creation of NATO, with amendments made by then-Labour prime minister Clement Attlee.
